Thank you for your thoughtful post. I've thought about these things myself, and not just about where my guys go to college, but school and life generally.
However, my primary intentions for my sons with regard to their education is to serve their needs, not the needs of others. We homeschooled because my wife and I believed that our sons would be ill-served by any alternative. We sent them to Catholic high school because we believed that was the next step appropriate to their education and formation as young men.
We were actually scolded by some others for not sending our sons to the local public schools - we were “robbing” others of the presence of our sons, the good that they could do, the good influence they could have.
We weren't willing to sacrifice our children to some nebulous greater good.
However, I'll grant that sending a six year-old out into the world to be a good influence is different from sending an 18 year-old, especially a mature one. A six year-old is yet to be more formed than to do any forming. A strong, mature, intelligent 18 year-old with a warrior's personality is something altogether.
“The reason you should encourage your son to go to Maryland is the influence he’ll have on those ‘best and brightest’ that he’ll be mingling with.”
I guess my question is, wouldn't this apply, a fortiori, at Hopkins or Harvard?
sitetest
I agree with everything you wrote and have experienced nearly the same issues with our home schooling. As for the above question, if I understood you correctly you're son will have a special scholarship at Maryland that will allow him to meet the top students at other schools including Hopkins and Harvard, etc. correct? If that's the case you get the actual dollar savings, plus the great education and an opportunity to still influence future American leaders. That's my reasoning.